At the gateway to downtown Miami Beach’s celebrated pedestrian promenade sits an important new social and civic experiment, Herzog and de Meuron’s 1111 Lincoln Road. Completed in 2010, the mixed-use project features residential, office and retail components; however, the standout element that re-shapes the discussion about urban and architectural design is, uncharacteristically, the parking garage.
From an architectural and urban standpoint, it is a bold and exhilarating design, celebrating form, structure and material properties in a striking, well-conceived piece of urban sculpture. The client and architects have seized an opportunity to redefine a typically unpleasant and maligned utilitarian typology, driven by efficiency and density, and transformed it into a civic and cultural amenity. They have created not only a thing of beauty, but also provided an important urban gesture by continuing the public/private realm up through the garage.
Even though the garage is a private facility, there is a strong sense that the public is welcome to explore the dynamic levels and unfolding vistas of the neighbourhood. The ground plane of the pedestrian realm transitions easily into the parking garage, forming an almost continuous urban sequence from pedestrian street to parking garage. High ceilings, dramatic forms and open-air sides frame views of the surrounding neighbourhood. A high-end clothing store on the fifth floor offers a destination for the street-level pedestrians. An event space and glass restaurant at the top floor has become ‘the place’ for art, fashion, film and cultural events.
The project is successful, not only for its architectural bravery and sophistication, but also because it turns the typology of what a parking garage is expected to be, on its head. The much maligned parking garage becomes an opportunity to enhance the public realm.
Jonathan Friedman is an intern architect living in Toronto, Canada. Born and raised in South Africa, and having lived and traveled around the world, he views the city an armature upon which daily life is played out.
photos by the author
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I recently wrote a piece arguing that these ‘designer’ garages are nothing to fawn over. The obsessive addition of parking garages is creating more traffic, more noise, more emissions and degrading the character that makes Miami Beach an attractive place to visit in the first place.
Read more: Visit Miami Beach – Come See Our Parking Garages http://www.transitmiami.com/miami-beach/visit-miami-beach-come-see-our-parking-garages